Seimelis

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Memel town hall

The Seimelis ( Memelland Landtag ) was the parliament of the Memelland from 1925 to 1939 with its seat in Memel . The venue was the Memel town hall .

The Memelland, which according to the 1910 census was about half populated by Germans and Lithuanians, was recognized as part of Lithuania by the League of Nations in 1924 in the Memel Convention . However, an autonomy of the Memel country within Lithuania was required. The Statute of Autonomy was passed by the Lithuanian Parliament on May 8, 1924, but from 1926 onwards it had no effect.

Accordingly, the German parties in the state parliament had broad majorities.

prehistory

After the separation of the Memelland from the German Reich became apparent, a preliminary parliament was formed in July 1919 from the district assemblies of the Memel, Heydekrug and Pogegen districts and the city councilors of the city of Memel, without the participation of the National Lithuanians. This pre-parliament elected a "working committee". After Georg von Lambsdorff had become Reich and State Commissioner for the Memel area to be ceded, he asked for the election of a seven-member committee to act as a representative of the population. The mayor of Memel, Arthur Altenberg , the social democrat Fritz Matzies , the district administrator of the Tilsit district , Wilhelm von Schlenther , district administrator Honig, Ökonomierat Scheu and a member of the merchant class were elected . The pre-parliament sent a delegation to Berlin to negotiate with the victorious powers and passed resolutions to remain with the Reich. Ultimately, the effort was unsuccessful. Now the efforts of the pre-parliament were directed towards a status as a separate state, similar to that of the Free City of Danzig . The pre-parliament elected a twelve-member constitutional committee, which submitted a draft constitution. This provided for a freely elected state parliament and a 12-member Senate as government. With the takeover of government by High Commissioner Dominique Odry , the work of the pre-parliament ended without this constitution being implemented.

Allocation of seats in the Seimelis

Seimelis 1925 Seimelis 1927 Seimelis 1930 Seimelis 1932
Distribution of seats (1925)
    
A total of 29 seats
  • SMP : 5
  • Otherwise: 2
  • MLP : 11
  • MVP : 11
Distribution of seats (1927)
     
A total of 29 seats
  • KPM : 2
  • SMP : 3
  • MLP : 10
  • LVP : 4
  • MVP : 10
Distribution of seats (1930)
     
A total of 29 seats
  • AP : 2
  • SMP : 4
  • MLP : 10
  • LVP : 5
  • MVP : 8
Distribution of seats (1932)
     
A total of 29 seats
  • AP : 3
  • SMP : 2
  • MLP : 11
  • LVP : 5
  • MVP : 8
Seimelis 1935 Seimelis 1938
Distribution of seats (1935)
  
A total of 29 seats
  • LVP : 5
  • MVP : 24
Distribution of seats (1938)
  
A total of 29 seats
  • LVP : 4
  • MVP : 25

State elections

The state parliament had 29 seats, one for every 5000 residents. Women and men over the age of 24 had the right to vote. From 1930 the right to vote was linked to a minimum age of 30 years. The election was conducted in a constituency. The legal bases were the law on the elections for Seimelis of June 19, 1925, the law of December 5, 1928 on the acquisition and loss of the status of citizens of the Memel area and the amendments to the law on the elections for Seimelis of September 3, 1930.

Electoral term Election date Legislative period
I. Seimelis October 19, 1925 November 23, 1925 to December 7, 1926
II. Seimelis August 30, 1927 October 6, 1927 to August 29, 1930
III. Seimelis October 11, 1930 November 12, 1930 to November 6, 1931
IV. Seimelis May 4, 1932 June 4, 1932 to April 16, 1935
V. Seimelis 29./30. September 1935 November 6, 1935 to November 1, 1938
VI. Seimelis December 11, 1938 March 22, 1939


Election results:

year MLP
Memelland
Agriculture Party 		MVP
Memelland
People's Party 		SPM
Social Democratic
Party of the Memel Region 		AP
Workers' Party of Memelland 		KPM
Communist Party of
the Memel Region 		other LVP
Lithuanian
People's Party
1925 38.1% - 11 seats 36.9% - 11 seats 16.0% - 5 seats Other 9.0% - 2 seats
1927 33.6% - 10 seats 32.7% - 10 seats 10.1% - 3 seats 7.2% - 2 seats 13.6% - 4 seats
1930 31.8% - 10 seats 27.6% - 8 seats 13.8% - 4 seats 4.2% - 2 seats 22.7% - 5 seats
1932 37.1% - 11 seats 27.2% - 8 seats 7.8% - 2 seats 8.2% - 3 seats 19.7% - 5 seats

100% missing = nominations not represented in the state parliament

year German unit list Greater Lithuanian parties
1935 81.2% - 24 seats 18.8% - 5 seats
1938 87.2% - 25 seats 12.8% - 4 seats

Presidents of Parliament

literature

  • Mads Ole Balling: From Reval to Bucharest - Statistical-Biographical Handbook of the Parliamentarians of the German Minorities in East Central and Southeastern Europe 1919-1945, Volume 2, 2nd edition . Copenhagen 1991, ISBN 87-983829-5-0 , pp. 691 ff .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Statute of Autonomy of May 8, 1924
  2. ^ Friedrich Janz: The emergence of the Memel area, 1928, pp. 75–80
  3. ^ Elections in the Weimar Republic - Memel area
  4. ^ Worldstatesmen.org - Lithuania